Britain’s alternative sports
From cheese rolling to bog snorkelling, the Brits love wacky sporting alternatives. A raft of hilarious spectacles take place annually, often as part of a festival steeped in tradition and local culture. Head-off on an adventure and discover the strange and wonderfully eccentric goings-on that will leave you looking back in laughter for a lifetime.
Cheese Rolling
No-one is quite sure of the origins of this surreal event. Some say it was all about grazing rights and others talk about it being a fertility ritual. Either way the tradition is thought to go back some 600 years and shows now signs of slowing. Cheer-on the crazy competitors of The Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake as they hurtle down a hill after a round of Double Gloucester cheese. Cheese has been recorded hurtling down the hill at 70mph - that’s the speed limit on British motorways.
World Bog Snorkelling Championships
Watch competitors take the plunge during the bogsnorkelling weekender in Mid Wales. A 60-metre swim in a peat bog is just the thing for them on what’s often a blisteringly hot August day.
Held in the tiny town Llanwrtyd Wells in Mid Wales it’s billed as a unique endurance race, so why not get down and dirty or cheer on these truly filthy competitors as they push themselves on.
Race The Train
Ride the train on the Talyllyn Railway to Abergynolwyn in Wales and watch as scores of runners attempt to keep-up or beat you to your destination. Competitors now come from all over the globe to have a go across this multi-terrain event. The Talyllyn Railway was the first of the small railways to be rescued by a preservation society, and is now one of the Great Trains of Wales.
